2016

Excellence in Finance

Winner

Hope Cochran - King

Hope has been crucial in successfully transitioning King from a small, privately-held company to a multi-billion dollar publicly traded entity.

As Chief Financial Officer, she successfully closed King’s $6bn acquisition by Activision Blizzard in February 2016, helping lead the deal and managing the very lengthy and detailed due diligence process right through to the beginning of an effective integration.

Her installation of new processes and disciplined organisational skills have supported the evolution of growth in both King’s revenue and employee base – ultimately enhancing the way King produces, launches and markets its games.

Along the way, Hope built a fantastic finance team to prepare for the complex responsibilities of being a publically traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.

Runners up

Elliot Jordan - Farfetch

Since joining Farfetch as Chief Financial Officer in January 2015, Elliot has played a major role in the Group’s fund raising activities, leading the recent $110m Series F equity investment and arranging an additional $50m long-term credit facility.

During the last 12 months, Elliot supported the broader leadership team to develop and complete an accelerated investment programme to grow the business. This included the acquisition of the iconic London boutique Browns, expansion of operations in key international markets, and development of core teams. As a result, Gross Merchandise Value grew 70% to over $500m in 2015.

He has created a strong, commercially-focused finance team to support the Farfetch business, boosting resource within Tax, Treasury, Financial Planning, and the Legal and Company Secretarial functions.

Shane Corstorphine - Skyscanner

Shane operates more as a business leader than a traditional Chief Financial Officer. His overview on the development of the organisation as a whole has meant direct results for the wider business, with gross bookings increasing 49% since last year, to $11.2bn.

During the past year he transacted a significant tech fundraise of $192.m to support and accelerate Skyscanner’s rapid global growth in the £332 billion ($500 billion) online travel market. 2015 also saw Shane work closely on a joint venture with Yahoo! Japan.